Startups like Eargo are banking on having more tech-savvy baby boomer customers in the future
When Eargo CEO Christian Gormsen was approached by the venture capital arm of Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk in 2013 to join a fledgling startup making hearing aids, he says he told them, “I’ve seen all the startup attempts in the hearing aid space, and frankly none of them have been worth the paper that the business plan was written on.
Then he was shown the prototype made by Eargo’s cofounders, Daniel Shen, Florent Michel and Raphael Michel. He was impressed with what they had built. By 2014, Gormsen says, he’d joined as a board member, and by 2016 he’d decided to come on as CEO. Gormsen says Eargo has sold hearing aids to over 20,000 people since launching commercially in 2017.
The Food & Drug Administration estimates that some 37.5 million people over 18 in the U.S. need a hearing aid, and the World Health Organization estimates that some 466 million need them around the world and 900 million will require them by 2050. For the past several decades, the market has been dominated by six big manufacturers: Starkey Hearing Technologies, GN Store Nord, Sonova, Sivantos, William Demant and Widex. They often sell their hearing aids to middlemen, that is, audiologists, who test patients’ hearing and fit them with hearing aids patients in a brick-and-mortar store. The average cost of a hearing aid is $2,300, according to a 2015 report from the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.
Indonesia Berita Terbaru, Indonesia Berita utama
Similar News:Anda juga dapat membaca berita serupa dengan ini yang kami kumpulkan dari sumber berita lain.
Hearing Aid Startups Slash Prices By Following The Warby Parker Sales ModelStartups like Eargo and Audicus are trying to break into the market for hearing aids that's controlled by five manufacturers. Their pitch: lower costs by cutting out audiologists and storefronts, similar to how Warby Parker sells glasses online.
Baca lebih lajut »
Hearing Aid Startups Slash Prices By Following The Warby Parker Sales ModelStartups like Eargo and Audicus are trying to break into the market for hearing aids that's controlled by five manufacturers. Their pitch: lower costs by cutting out audiologists and storefronts, similar to how Warby Parker sells glasses online.
Baca lebih lajut »
Trump's order to slash number of science advisory boards blasted by critics as 'nonsensical''It's no longer death by a thousand cuts. It's taking a knife to the jugular,” one science advocate said of the order to eliminate a third of the advisory boards.
Baca lebih lajut »
Private venture-backed startups like Slack and Airbnb are investing in other startups. Here’s where their money is going.The top four corporate venture capital funds have invested more than $2 billion across 76 startups since 2013.
Baca lebih lajut »
Jailed British-Iranian aid worker in Iran starts hunger strike: husbandA British-Iranian aid worker jailed in Tehran has begun a hunger strike to deman...
Baca lebih lajut »